Pick up sticks

Madeleine Angevine vineyard

Secateurs at the ready! 

Well this job certainly offers plenty of variety and opportunities to get outside so a few weeks ago,I headed along some quite rural roads/tracks to a local vineyard, about 8 miles away where a particular variety of vines called Madeleine Angevine had just been winter pruned.  My mission if I choose to accept it is to collect around 5000 'sticks', these are the prunings which are still live, no less than a pencil width and about 2ft long. Amazingly these will then be used to graft onto rootstocks to create new vines which will eventually be sold, each little bud on the stick will potentially be a baby vine. As the 'sticks' die back a little in storage, which is inevitable, the ends will not be able to be used hence why we have to pick so many . So I readied myself with my secateurs and a good motivating playlist and set to work. Obviously, the first track had to be 'Red Red Wine'! (Although for those of you who know your vine varieties, this is in fact a white grape!) So after one afternoon of enthusiastic collecting, I was three bunches in (each bunch is about 100 sticks), hmm 47 bundles to go. Well after a few visits I did get there. For the final push Pete, who helps in production, came along to help get to the final total. I have to say, it was quite rewarding to see the 50 bunches stacked up at the end of the vineyard knowing that we had done that all by hand, although next year I think i will grab a bunch of peeps to help, much easier with company. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera that day but it was five times the size of the photo below.

Getting there 

Electric blankets at the ready!

Cosy times in production

I came to work one morning earlier this week to find two king sized electric blankets in our production area. Ahhh my boss is good to me,nice place to snooze when I need a little nap after a hard mornings graft.....wrong!!

This is an innovative method and if it works vastly cheaper than the industry offerings to try and gently warm the steel tanks where fermentation is stuck,meaning that there is still sugar remaining which we need the yeast to convert to alcohol so that we can maximise the alcohol content,especially important in our young wines as I am sure you will all agree :) 

So we have wrapped them up nice and cosy,whacked them up to maximum power and covered them with reflective blankets to try and retain maximum heat rather than warming up the entire shed!   We are now monitoring progress which is gradual as we are having to warm getting on for 1000 litres, but having tasted a couple of days ago there is a little prickle on the tongue which indicates that fermentation could be starting up again -so fingers crossed that it is mission accomplished.

Stage 1

And finished off with the reflective covering

More and more I am learning that many of the practical aspects of wine making in a small scale winery such as this is down to thinking outside the box and using what you have around you in clever ways rather than investing thousands of pounds in specialised equipment. I am sure there will be many more instances of using everyday things to obtain a desired effect.

The miracle of fermentation and other things!

Now,I have actually been doing my exciting new job for a few months before starting this blog, however as I am still very new to this industry having previously been immersed in all things travel for the last 8 years,I thought it would be interesting (hopefully for others too as many of you I know share my love of a good beverage) to share some of my thoughts and experiences each month so here goes.

When I began at Once Upon a Tree back in October it was the middle of apple,pear and grape harvest,oh boy how I managed to get through that period without any major hiccups I will never know! It's a really important time as all the drinks we produce are from 100% juice so we have to press and crush like loonies for about 8 weeks - more about that in autumn! 

In Production

So with the arrival of 2014,it is an exciting time, as many of our young wines,ciders and perry are coming to the end of their fermentation - basically getting to the point where you and I would start to recognise the taste. Some are left to ferment 'wild' with nature completely left to its own devices,however most are given a helping hand as we added a specially chosen yeast strain soon after harvest - no, I am afraid I cannot divulge our secret recipe but call me a science geek, isn't it amazing that this just happens, 

Fermentation Analysis 2nd January

I have very quickly learnt that it is so important to taste,taste taste (yes I do get paid for this but.....no swallowing!! ) so I get used to the flavours and characteristics of all the drinks at all their different stages. I'm hoping to go on some training courses soon and hone my palate so that I can confidently identify all these vanilla, oak, floral bouquets and all that jazz. I feel like I'm learning a new language and shall no doubt wow (or bore) you with all this new knowledge along the way. 

Hydrometer measurements
in my lab

Please note that if in company I can still happily enjoy a glass of something without feeling the need to analyse its flavour components and comment on the state of its nose :)

The other way to test how far fermentation has progressed is by doing a hydrometer test, as the sugar is converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide by the yeast, the specific gravity measurement will decrease until it is stable around 0.995 or thereabouts. So this is done ideally every week after the yeast has been added. Here is one of our ciders, Dorothy's Orchard which has just about come to the end of its fermentation and will soon be racked off the yeast lees. 

Bottling set up for  'The Wonder'

Although we have gone into our own wine production this season,before I started the company did some contract wine making last year and this month these were ready to be bottled so that they could begin the next leg of their journey to sparkling wine. We also filtered and bottled our very own, quite unique dessert pear wine - The Wonder. Honestly this drink just has to be tried, it is truly divine and ok, I am a little biased but we have had many such comments from complete impartial punters. It is so smooth , full of flavour and once it begins maturing, it will just get better and better.

So I will explain more about bottling in spring when there will be much more but basically, it is a production line and normally involves 2 or 3 people with specific tasks and once everything starts you just have to crack on till its all finished. To give you an idea, 3 of us working two full days with some other jobs too bottled about 4000 bottles - pretty mind boggling but very 
satisfying at the end of the day as you can tell from my smiley face!

Hey Presto, over 1000 bottles, filled, bottled, 
corked and stacked,all ready for labelling and selling! 

Out and About

I managed to escape production earlier in January as Simon,the chief winemaker and my boss took me to see a young vineyard, in its third season up in Northamptonshire so we could advise the manager about pruning the vines as they are now mostly established enough to start training them in a particular formation, the vineyard is mixed and has some different varieties which have been carefully chosen according to terroir (the soil), geographical area and orientation. It was actually the first time I'd seen a vineyard up close and personal probably since a scout around Denbies Vineyard in my Surrey days. 

So armed with our secateurs we went out for the demo,it was lovely being outside on a crisp wintery day but I only pruned a few vines. Probably a little different if you have 4 acres to do and the weather starts to change. Forgot my camera on this little jaunt but hopefully there will be more so more vine pics coming soon. Ok so that is not a pic of me, but in fact Todd from Maize Valley Vineyard, Ohio but it is kinda what I was doing just to give you an idea.

Firing up Mani for work

Well guess I'll finish with a little pic of me and my new toy, our work fork lift,Mani (named by me as it's make is Manitou). I haven't got L plates but probably should have, driving it is ok apart from the clutch,boy am I gonna end up with Popeye sized left leg,it's heavy! The main tricky bit is using the forks as being a little hobbit sized person I can't actually see them unless I sort of do a ski sit out of the seat,hmm then I'll get Popeye sized thighs too! I have to have a foam booster seat much to everyone's amusement. Anyway this is vital to help move heavy tanks and pallettes around the production and dispatch area. At the moment I am just practising with empty containers and pallette trays but soon will come a time when I have to move fully loaded palettes, watch this space. So on to February we go, everyone has their fingers crossed for drier weather as many things we should be doing at this time have been put on hold due to the saturated land and not being able to take any machinery over it. 

Coming up in next months blog, racking the wines, ciders and perrys which have finished fermentation, and just how do you create a sparkling cider or wine, I hope to reveal a little about how this is done. 

Geez I've just realised I have packed in quite a lot this month, maybe I am gonna have to blog a bit more regularly cos this is getting a bit long now. Please feel free to comment, I have really enjoyed writing it and will certainly try and get some regular posting on here. 

If there is anything you would like to read or see, let me know. I may well not know the answer but I will certainly try and find out. As I have said, this is one steep learning curve and I am loving sharing it with you all.